The G
by EmmSea
Summary: (A story snippet, up for adoption) The evening of his sorting and Justin inadvertently starts a new Hogwarts tradition. Please be aware, there's one swear word.


This is a very brief story snippet that came to me on a long drive, half listening to music, thinking random thoughts and probably not paying enough attention to the road. Two tiny chapters.

The Justin in this story is based on a late friend, a raconteur of the highest order. If you were planning a sit-down dinner, he was the first person on the invite list. There was no such thing as a dull party when Gavin was a guest. Gavin, we miss you mate.

 **Backstory.**

It's the evening on 1st September 1991, we are in the Hufflepuff common room.

The 5th year prefects and the new 1st year 'puffs are sitting around a table; the prefects are giving the firsties a run down on what they need to know.

Many of the older 'puffs are hanging around, half listening to the briefing, half chatting with their friends.

 **On with the story.**

"… … he's a bit of an arse actually. Be very careful in his classes, keep your heads down, look out for each other. "

"Next is transfiguration, put very simply, it's the art of changing something magically from one form to another, you start with simple conversions that won't make sense, but that's to learn the basic concepts. Transfiguration is Susies," nodding towards the female prefect next to him, "strength, so if you have questions, ask her. Transfig is taught by Professor McGonagall. MCG is also the head of -" A snort interrupted him. "Justin, what's so funny?"

"MCG! … MCG! Get it?" Justin was surrounded by vague looks. "Ahhh, OK, let me explain. I'm the first magical person we know of in our family. Well, Father works in the non-magical Public Service and, when I was younger he was posted to Australia as the Ambassador. I think I was about four. That was when we found out I was magical. As you go through Customs when you arrive, you go through a metal detector. We found out later, it's also a magical detector. Look, this is all a story for another time. So anyway, long story short, we were all living in Canberra, I went to magical school in Melbourne." He in turn was interrupted.

"Magical school!" "How old were you?" "How old did you start school at?" Justin was bombarded with questions from all directions.

"OK, OK. Magical Australia and Magical Britain are completely different from each other. From what I remember, over there as soon as you do accidental magic, your parents are told about magic. They say early knowledge cuts down on stress in the family, which is a big cause of accidental magic. Anyway, when they come around to introduce you to magic. There's two of them, one a magical person from the government and one is a non-magical parent. So, they gave Mother and Father the talk, one of the things they introduce you to Mplay, that's magical play group, where you get together with other magical families, it's a couple of times a week. The parents talk to other parents and we play. And sometimes we would visit the big schools, especially to watch sports.

"At five, you start junior school. The school's called the Southern Cross Institute of Magic or SCIM, so the kids are called SCIMers. There's four campuses and there's kids from all over the region, from New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, but the Islanders mostly go to SCIM North and the New Zealanders to SCIM East in New Zealand. But they have these really cool magic doors, where you're in one school, and you step through a doorway and you're in another school. I went to school at SCIM South, that's near Melbourne. I had a reusable port key from our back verandah straight to the school. Junior school is years one to six, senior school is seven to twelve. I guess senior school's like Hogwarts, but most kids are day kids, only SCIM North and East have boarders, and they're usually from the smaller countries. When we got my Hogwarts letter, we really thought about me going there, but we were already back in London as Father's term as Ambassador had ended.

"But this is not explaining MCG. Can we talk about their schools another time?" He got nods.

"Now there's two things you have to understand about Australians, non-magical or magical, it doesn't matter. Firstly, they give nicknames to everyone they like, you don't get a choice, if they like you, you get a nickname."

"Did you have one?" "What was yours?"

"Yes I had a nickname, it was 'Two Dads'." Seeing some frowns, Justin explained. "It comes from my surname, Finch-Fletchley, two surnames, two fathers, hence Two Dads." laughter ensued.

"Now secondly, they love their sport. It's an abiding passion for them. Now in Melbourne, there is a famous sporting ground called the Melbourne Cricket Ground, it's been there for hundreds of years, it's huge! It seats about a 100,000 people, and they use it for cricket and footy, that's Australian Rules football, not the one you non-magicals know. It's an amazing place, we went to many games there. In winter, there's usually a footy game three times a week and they regularly get 70 or 80,000 to a game. Anyway, Aussies usually shorten the name of the ground to the MCG, but locals from Melbourne, well, they call it," Justin paused, deepened his voice and said, " **the G**." They all laughed as he finished up, "So when you said MCG, I immediately thought of **the G**."

Prefect Susie asked, "So how do you choose your nickname?"

Justin put on an overly posh, upper class accent, "Ahhh, now that's a serious matter my good lady. A nick name usually takes time to come into form, to mature. It's not a matter for unseemly haste." Reverting to his normal voice he continued, "You don't get to pick your own nickname, they come from the group. It may be because of a habit you have, or something you say, or a physical characteristic. One of Father's first secretaries had a rather large belly, his nickname was 'Pelican', you know _'A wonderful bird is the pelican, its beak can hold more than its belly can'_. I suspect if Professor Flitwick was in Australia, his nickname would relate to his physical stature, not 'Runt" or 'Tiny', those are too obvious or unkind. Nicknames are usually slightly embarrassing, but not cruel or nasty. Kind of to see how you cope with a bit of teasing, if you understand what I'm trying to say. I'd expect he'd be called 'Stretch' or 'The Big Fella' or something like that. And Professor McGonagall, if we were in Australia, she'd almost certainly be **The G**. Anyway, shouldn't we get on with our briefing?"

And the prefects went back to their introductions.

But the nick names didn't end there …

 **AN1.** If Justin's father was an ambassador, the family would attend many social functions, both formal and informal. So, young Justin, unlike most 11 year olds, would be relaxed talking to older people, as well as talking in groups. His background, clearly upper-class, is why Father and Mother, not Mum and Dad.

 **AN2.** I'm struggling to come up with a nick name for the Headmaster. So far 'The Emperor' as a dig at the golden throne he uses in the Great Hall, is winning, but I'm not 100%. I think there's got to be something around having too many jobs. But, given how insular the British magical world is, a non-magical cultural reference wouldn't work. Please let me know your suggestions.

The final, very short, chapter in a week or so, hopefully mentioning a better nick name for APWBD.


End file.
